FOUNDATIONS: 14 You are Filled through Christ

There was some weird teaching going on in Colossa. It claimed that Christ was not all you needed to please God and grow spiritually. These false teachers said in order to please God, Christians needed to follow “human traditions” (v. 8), abstain from certain foods, and practice certain ceremonies (v. 16). They claimed the Christians needed “strong devotion” to extra-biblical spiritual disciplines, “pious self-denial and severe bodily discipline” (v. 23). And in order to sound really spiritual, these false teachers claimed to have seen visions from God (v. 18).

The Apostle Paul wrote in answer to these errors: “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Col 2:9-10 NIV). Just as full as Jesus was of deity, the Christian is full of all they need to be complete in their own life. For all those Christians who are still living to get what they already have God says:

You also are complete through your union with Christ. (Colossians 2:10)

God gives you everything you need to be happy.

You cannot be filled through people or the world

There are few experiences in humanity more universal and constant than feeling empty, dissatisfied, and disappointed. You are always hungering for more. As stated in a previous chapter, you were created to be essentially a bundle of needs. And because of this you are constantly seeking ways to be filled. You are always seeking to be happy which is simply having your needs satisfied.

Unfortunately, Christians constantly seek the wrong sources to have their emotional needs fulfilled. They think other humans have the ability to satisfy their God-given H.A.P.P.I.E.R. needs of Hope, Approval, Protection, Power, Importance, Enjoyment, and Relationship. But as stated in a previous chapter, one of the most difficult but vital convictions of a mature Christian is this: None of my God-given needs for love can be fully satisfied by people, but my deepest needs can only be satisfied by faith in the promises and experience of God.

Some people feel odd that people and possessions cannot fulfill them. They look around them and it seems like these things make others happy. What is wrong with them? Why doesn’t even a loving spouse and beautiful children, and a nice house satisfy us?

Because God created you to need perfect and pure love. Anything less than perfect love will not satisfy you and will disappoint you. God did not create you to be satisfied with all of the things the World offers to fill you and make you happy. He did not even create you to have your needs satisfied by other mere humans. And those people who seem fulfilled by possessions and people really are not. And deep inside they know this.

Why did God create you this way? Because He is a jealous God and He wants to be enough for you. He wants your security, significance, and satisfaction to come from Him. God created you to need and crave love because He wants you to need and crave Him. Your desire for the ideal person to love you was created in you so you would seek God. Anything and anybody other than God will be too small to satisfy your heart because it was created to only be filled by Him.

Only God’s love will fill you

This is why our text is so wonderful: “You also are complete through your union with Christ” (Col 2:10). In the previous verse the Apostle wrote: “in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body” (v. 9). In the same measure that Jesus is completely full of God, you are fully complete in Christ. The Apostle did not just say that everything you need could come from Christ. He said YOU ALREADY HAVE EVERYTHING YOU NEED. “You also are complete through your union with Christ” (Col 2:10) if you will simply believe in what He has given you and who Christ made you.

Your deepest and greatest emotional needs are Hope, Approval, Protection, Power, Importance, Enjoyment, and Relationship. These are what make us H.A.P.P.I.E.R. And God intended all of them to be fully satisfied in your relationship with Christ. Having your identity in Christ means experiencing your security, significance, and satisfaction in your relationship with Christ. Because all these things are always available to you through the love of Christ, you can always have the unconditional joy of having these needs satisfied no matter what else is going on in your life.

Your faith in the promises of Christ will give you all of the Hope you need to have joy. Your faith in the love of Christ will give you all the Approval, Importance, and Relationship you need to have joy. Christ’s love promises you all the Protection you need to have joy. Christ’s Spirit in you provides all the Power you need to have joy. And serving Christ and being used by Him to bless others will give you more truly satisfying Enjoyment than anything this World has to offer.

All the hope, love, forgiveness, security, ability, strength, significance, respect, pleasure, companionship, truth, wisdom, knowledge, satisfaction and fulfillment you crave, seek, and need can be experienced through your faith in Christ. “You also are complete through your union with Christ” (Col 2:10) if you will believe it. God gives you everything you need to be happy. If you will believe it. To have Christ is to have everything you need. To not have Christ is to have nothing that you need because these needs will never be fully satisfied by anything or anyone else in this World.

The Apostle Paul believed: “My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19 NIV). The immediate context of his statement was finances (cf. vs. 12, 15-18). But he clarified what “all your needs” means when he added, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. . . . I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (vs. 11-12 NIV). And, “I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (v. 13).

Paul believed that it was ultimately Christ who provided his physical needs. But he also believed “God will meet all your needs,” including your spiritual and emotional needs. It was because Paul had experienced this that he had “learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.”

How did Paul experience having God meet all his emotional needs and Christ strengthening him in all his circumstances? By believing and trusting in God’s promises and obeying His commands. Paul’s deep sense of security and significance came from God’s promises to love Him in this life. His deepest satisfaction came from living to obey and glorify Christ. These promises are discussed more thoroughly in the next study FAITH. Christ’s commands are discussed in study #4: FRUIT. Philippians 4:19 is one more clear statement in Scripture that God gives you everything you need to be happy. If you will believe and obey Him.

Christians make Christ only a part of their life because they think He can only fulfill part of their life. They leave Him out of their relationships, work, recreation, and even ministry because they think these things will make them happy apart from Christ. But “your real life is with Christ” because only His presence in all of these things will truly satisfy you.

Notice why Paul prayed the following for Christians:

Now that you have been firmly rooted and established in God’s love, I pray that you will be able to mentally grasp, together with all Christians, how wide and long and high and deep is God’s love for you, even though we cannot fully understand it. Then you will be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:18-19)

According to Scripture, how can you “be filled up to all the fullness of God”? By believing more in God’s love. In fact, it is only and always your lack of faith in your Father’s love that makes you feel anything but H.A.P.P.I.E.R., no matter what is happening to you. Your belief in God’s love can fill you with all of these things all the time. “You also are complete through your union with Christ” (Col 2:10) and God gives you everything you need to be happy.

The tragedy of desperate Christians

When Christ died on the cross He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He was not only referring to completing His work on Earth. He also meant that everything necessary to give you all the Hope, Approval, Protection, Power, Importance, Enjoyment, and Relationship you need, has already been accomplished by Christ. He opened the way for you to be adopted by His Dad and be loved by Him. Which is everything you need. You have a deep need and desire to be known and understood and appreciated. But “now that you know God . . . God knows you” (Gal 4:9). Who else do you need? “You also are complete through your union with Christ” (Col 2:10) and God gives you everything you need to be happy.

The Apostle wrote to some other Christians who thought they needed more than Christ: “I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent” (2 Cor 11:3). Remember how “Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent”? The devil convinced her that she needed something (“the knowledge of good and evil,” Gen 2:17). Something that God had not yet given her. So she turned her back on God and sought the fulfillment of her needs and desires apart from Him, which was the first sin.

And the devil does the same trick in many Christians’ lives because it works so well. This World that Satan controls convinces you that you must seek and strive for your H.A.P.P.I.E.R. needs in the people and things of this Earth. And in the process “your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent” (2 Cor 11:3) and you will be just as disappointed as Eve was.

In spite of all the Hope, Approval, Protection, Power, Importance, Enjoyment, and Relationship available from your God, many Christians live desperate lives. They are still seeking Hope and Approval from something or someone else. They still feel afraid and powerless. They still think a person or promotion can make them feel Important. They still think a thing can fulfill their desire for Enjoyment. They still think they can find the pure love they were created for in another imperfect human being. And they live desperate and disappointing lives.

Far too many Christians ARE LIVING TO GET WHAT THEY ALREADY HAVE! Fighting a fight for their significance and security that has already been won. Most Christians understand that they no longer need to earn their forgiveness. But they keep trying to earn their sense of being safe and valuable. They seek significance in the love of another human when their God has already made them as significant and important as they could possibly be.

Your fulfillment and joy does not come from what you do, as much as believing who you already are. And this is good news because no one can change who you are no matter what they say or do. Not even you can change who you are to God.

The Devil’s World teaches us that we have to earn love, acceptance, and significance. You have to perform. You do not become important or happy in the World until you accomplish or accumulate things. This is not true in the Kingdom of God which you belong to. Everyone there begins infinitely valuable and can be unconditionally joyful because of what they already have in God.

One of the hardest things to do in life is find your value in God’s love instead of your accomplishments or performance. Real sacrificial joy-filled Christianity comes from knowing you do not need to earn your significance, but it has already been given to you. A lack of this identity in Christ causes dishonesty and exaggeration when you portray yourself to others. It also leads to self-promotion and self-preoccupation, a focus on yourself rather than others. But “You also are complete through your union with Christ” (Col 2:10).

Still, Christians seek security in money when God Almighty Himself has promised to take care of them. Christians can have all of their emotional needs for security, significance, acceptance, purpose, peace, and even pleasure fulfilled in their friendship with God. But because of their lack of belief and trust in Him, they seek all these things from the world just like unbelievers.

But when everything and everyone apart from Christ disappoints you, you are closer to understanding that God alone will truly meet your needs. And He promises to meet all of your needs so you can be complete in Him instead of relying on things and people.

Why would it be foolish for a billionaire to work at a place that paid him very little? Because he does not need too! He would be wasting his time and energy to get something he already has plenty of, and not enjoying what he has. Christian, God has already given you something much more valuable than a billion dollars. He has given you His unconditional and never ending love. If you believed that all the time, you would be happy all the time. But again, we seek other people and things for love.

We are like a man with a billion dollars in the bank, but who lives in poverty because he does not believe the money is there. God’s love enables you to avoid the tragedy of seeking your needs from the world instead of enjoying the fullness of God. All of the love, security, and significance you need are in God if you will only believe: “You also are complete through your union with Christ” (Col 2:10) Notice this fullness is something you already have. You do not need to work for it. But you need to believe: God gives you everything you need to be happy.

The power of faith to meet your needs and give you joy

It is vital to understand this: Beliefs, not circumstances, dictate joy. Lacking joy is never a result of your circumstances, but a lack of believing and remembering God’s love for you. This is why believing in the promises and gifts of God, no matter what is happening in your life, can cause and protect your happiness. For example, Jesus said:

God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! [Because you believe] a great reward awaits you in heaven. (Matt 5:11-12)

Your Lord expects you to experience joy even when you are being persecuted. And you can do so because of what you believe. If you believe in God’s promise to reward you for suffering for Him you will be happy even in painful circumstances.

Therefore, faith in your heart can work to accomplish the goal of your heart (happiness) even if you cannot immediately obtain it from your current situation. This is what joy is: unconditional happiness based on believing in God’s love, not your circumstances. If you believe what the Scriptures say about God’s love for you, the power of your joy will be greater than anything the Devil or this world can do for you or to you. This is because: “You also are complete through your union with Christ” (Col 2:10) and God gives you everything you need to be happy.

► Return to the beginning and answer the questions there.

► Recite Jeremiah 17:5 from memory.

► Memorize Colossians 2:10 in the translation above or another.

► Schedule 1 hour with God this week. During this time complete and talk to God about Project 2H: “Facing My Idols” on the next page. In addition, spend some extra time for a God Time with the P.O.W.E.R. Plan.